After recently sharing highlights from the Exposure One Awards’ Black & White Nature Photography Contest in the Animals category, and then jumping into the wildly different worlds of Aerial and Underwater, we’re back with another slice of the 2025 winners.
This time, we’re narrowing the focus to the non-professional division, pulling together the category winners and honorable mentions from the areas we haven’t featured yet: Earth’s Textures, Humans & Nature, Land, Light & Shadow, Minimalism, Other, and Pattern & Form.
Let us know which are your favorites, and of course, check out all of 2025’s submissions on Exposure One’s website and Instagram page.
#1 “Natural Bonding” By Dori Darvish
Description: A moment of bonding, trust, and empathy. Created at a therapeutic horse farm where children heal through contact with animals. It explores the delicate boundary between strength and vulnerability. The mirrored gesture of closed eyes is a symbol of the intimate interaction and mutual understanding.
Silver Award in the Humans & Nature Category.
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18points
If Animals was all about presence and personality, and Aerial/Underwater leaned into “how is this even real,” this set is more about seeing. These categories reward photographers who can spot structure in chaos, and meaning in the quiet stuff most people walk past.
#2 “The Boy And His Camels” By Shyamala Thilagaratnam
Description: In Turkana, Kenya, the little boys took their job of herding their family's camels seriously. They led these huge beasts confidently, despite being dwarfed by them.
Honorable Mention in the Humans & Nature Category.
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18points
#3 “Lighthouse - Number 02” By Michael Ritzie
Description: A lighthouse beam cuts through a star-filled sky, its spiral tower glowing against the darkness. Surrounded by quiet land and distant trees, it stands as a lone guide in the night—steady, bright, and timeless under the Milky Way.
Bronze in the Light & Shadow Category.
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16points
It’s cracked mud that looks like a map. A single figure in a landscape that suddenly feels enormous. Shadows that do more work than the subject itself. Minimal frames where one line, one ripple, or one shape carries the whole image.
#4 “Nature’s Corridor” By Sofia Stead
Description: A tree grows through a man-made shaft of concrete, reaching for a sky we framed and forgot.
Nominee in the Humans & Nature Category.
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15points
#5 “The Badlands, South Dakota” By Neil Reichline
Bronze Award in the Earth’s Textures Category.
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13points
What makes the non-professional division especially fun is that it's open to anyone, and thus the moments and views caught are often ordinary in context, but the imagery itself is anything but that.
#6 “Lunar Ride” By Himanshu Sukhwal
Description: “It began with a dream to capture a plane crossing the moon. When I learned a blood moon would occur in Sept 2025, I tracked flight and lunar paths for months. That night, I caught a fleeting moment — a plane gliding across the glowing moon, uniting humans and nature in one frame.”
Silver Award in the Humans & Nature Category.
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12points
#7 “Souvenirs Of A Broken Life” By Adam Borzsonyi
Description: “This series follows my creative journey of healing through creating. All photos taken with Bronica SQ-Ai and Zenzanon 80mm f/2.8 & 150mm f/4 lenses, mostly on Ilford Delta 100 or Kodak Tmax400 films at box speed. Home-developed and home-scanned. Locations include the Schwarzwald, Acadia, Dolomites, etc.”
Honorable Mention in the Other Category.
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12points
The strongest shots tend to have a clear idea and a clean execution, the kind of photos that make you pause, squint, and go, “Wait… what am I looking at?”
#8 “Cabin View” By Katrina Peterson
Description: A window view of the Tetons that ranchers have seen for the past 137 years.
Silver Award in the Land Category.
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11points
#9 “Matterhorn” By Christiane Körber
Bronze in the Land Category.
Nominee in the Lights & Shadow Category.
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11points
Taken together, these winners and honorable mentions feel like a reminder that nature photography isn’t only about dramatic wildlife or extreme locations. Sometimes it’s about noticing the patterns, textures, and tiny visual “rules” the world keeps repeating and having the patience to frame them before they disappear.
#10 “The Magnificent Mulafossur” By Jeff Beatty
Description: The Mulafossur waterfall of the Faroe Islands falls precipitously to the ocean with the small village of Gasadalur in the backgroud.
Honorable Mention in the Land Category.
Nominee in the Ocean Category.
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11points
#11 “Geometry Of Wind And Rain” By Sergio Fadul
Description: In the vast stillness of Brazil’s Lençóis Maranhenses, a lone figure stands between light and shadow, sand and water — a reminder of our smallness before nature’s endless forms sculpted by wind and rain.
Honorable Mention in the Pattern & Form Category.
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10points
#12 “Fragments Of Patagonia” By Rodolfo Redivo
Description: “A small house. The eternal ice. And we, fragments before the vastness.”
Honorable Mention in the Land Category.
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10points
#13 “Diamonds And Pearls” By Laurence De La Gorce
Description: Frosted spiderweb on a freezing morning
Silver Award in the Pattern & Form Category.
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10points
#14 “Climbing Dune 45” By Debbie Lucas
Description: Walking up Dune 45 in Sossusvlei is a challenge, and the 2 people at the bottom have a long way to go.
Silver Award in the Light & Shadow Category.
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9points
#15 “Balanced Boulders” By Donald Bolak
Honorable Mention in the Earth’s Textures Category.
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8points
#16 “Riders Of The Dunes” By Brad Girard
Description: Nomadic Mongolian camel herders in the Gobi Desert.
Honorable Mention in the Humans & Nature Category.
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8points
#17 “Vegan Portraits” By Alain Van Hille
Description: “Before being cooked & eaten, the veggies, cabbage & pumpkin let me discover their secret & mysterious labyrinthian soul.”
Silver Award in the Other Category.
Nominee in the Pattern & Form Category.
Nominee in the Abstract Category.
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8points
#18 “Dead Trees In A Sandstorm” By Shyamala Thilagaratnam
Description: In Deadvlei, Namibia, these trees, estimated to be about 900 years old, have been dead for about 700 years. The wood hasn't decomposed due to the extreme dryness of the area, resulting in an otherworldly landscape, especially when the wind dramatically whipped up the sand.
Honorable Mention in the Land Category.
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7points
#19 “Sunlight On Silent Branches” By Marcos Franchetti
Honorable Mention in the Light & Shadow Category.
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7points
#20 “Flamingo Medley” By Rick Beldegreen
Description: “These feeding flamingos were photographed in Kenya. To obtain this viewing angle and create separation of the birds, I climbed an embankment overlooking the lake.”
Bronze Award in the Minimalism Category.
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7points